It’s official: Taylor Swift announced her 12th album on a New Heights podcast teaser with boyfriend Travis Kelce: “The Life of a Showgirl”!
Since Swift is known for her lifelong love of storytelling and books, and since we’re known for reading like the Gilmore Girls, let’s celebrate the new album by reviewing the best books shared in both Taylor’s songs and the Gilmore Girls book list.
Both Taylor Swift and the Gilmore Girls are fans of the classics! Literature lovers will find references to them sprinkled throughout her songs and the show.
Tip:
This is intertextuality: the way one text references, echoes, or influences another. It’s how stories, themes, or ideas from different works connect, creating deeper meaning by drawing on shared cultural or literary knowledge.
I’ve narrowed it down to my ten personal favorites. What’s yours?
Books Taylor Swift and the Gilmore Girls Referenced
Tip:
You can listen to these songs and get an Audible credit to listen to a book when you try Amazon Music.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Plot: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the beloved children’s classic book in which a young girl falls down a rabbit hole and into a whimsical world.
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): Taylor Swift’s most obvious reference to this title is in her song title, “Wonderland” (1989). Beyond this, she mentions falling down a rabbit hole, “curious” minds, going “mad,” and the Cheshire Cat— all staples of the classic.
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): On Gilmore Girls, Season 1, Episode 19 is titled “Emily in Wonderland” (a/k/a Stars Hollow). You’ll find more subtle references throughout the series, notably in Season 4, Episode 16 (“The Reigning Lorelai”), in which Lorelai talks about chasing a white rabbit and falling down a rabbit hole.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Plot: The Great Gatsby is arguably “The Great American Novel,” about the opulent life of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy man in America’s Jazz era, and his unrequited love for Daisy Buchanan, who is always just out of reach, much like the American Dream itself.
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): In “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” (reputation), Taylor sings about partying and “Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year,” and in “Don’t Blame Me” (reputation), she says, “now I’m your daisy.” Likewise, “happiness” references a “beautiful fool” (what Daisy hopes her daughter to be) and a “green light,” one of the most omnipresent symbols of illusory dreams in the novel.
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): Similarly, Lorelai Gilmore refers to Gatsby pining over Daisy to Sookie in Season 3, Episode 11 (“I Solemnly Swear”): “That is some serious Gatsby pining. … You’re his Daisy.”
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Plot: In Hamlet, a prince seeks to avenge his father’s murder by his uncle, but his hesitation, feigned madness, and a web of deceit lead to a tragic chain of deaths.
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): In one of my favorite songs, “But Daddy I Love Him” (The Tortured Poets Department), Taylor sings, “‘Stay away from her’ / The saboteurs protested too much.” This lyric directly quotes Act 3, Scene 2 of Hamlet, in which Prince Hamlet’s mother famously says, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): The title of Season 2, Episode 16 of Gilmore Girls explicitly references another famous Shakespearean line: “There’s the Rub.” This loosely means “the hard part.” So, for example, we know new Swift music is coming, but we are still waiting for it. There’s the rub.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Plot: Jane Eyre is a gothic coming-of-age novel about an orphan in Victorian England who has a complicated relationship with a mysterious man.
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): Folklore‘s “Invisible String” was wholly inspired by Jane Eyre, in which Rochester describes his bond with Jane as “a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly knotted to a similar string in you.”
Likewise, Swift sings, “And isn’t it just so pretty to think / All along there was some / Invisible string / Tying you to me?”
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): Brontë is referenced a few times throughout Gilmore Girls, and she returns in the Netflix reboot, A Year in the Life “Spring,” in which Jane Eyre notes are scribbled on a Chilton chalkboard behind Rory.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Plot: In the atmospheric classic thriller Rebecca, the main character is a servant who meets and quickly marries Max, the wealthy widower of Rebecca. Upon their arrival at his Manderley estate, it quickly becomes clear that Rebecca lingers in the memories of the staff.
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): Taylor Swift has said explicitly that this moody tale of an icy marriage in Rebecca inspired her song “Tolerate It” (Evermore): “I know my love should be celebrated / But you tolerate it.”
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): This is one of the books on season one of Gilmore Girls. In Season 1, Episode 11 of Gilmore Girls (“Paris Is Burning”), Rory’s English teacher, Max, nicknames her Rebecca. Besides the connection of the names and their shared love of literature, it also shouldn’t go unnoticed that the ghost of Rebecca is but an ominous, ever-present spirit in the book. Likewise, Rory is always the “elephant in the room” between Max and Lorelai— whether or not she’s physically present.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Plot: You likely already know the story of the young lovers Romeo and Juliet, who fell madly in love but were kept apart by feuding families, with tragic consequences.
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): Romeo and Juliet is probably the most obvious literary reference in Taylor Swift’s songs. She most notably called upon the timeless love story Romeo and Juliet to inspire her aptly titled “Love Story:” (Fearless) “[Y]ou were Romeo, you were throwin’ pebbles / And my daddy said, “Stay away from Juliet.”
Further, “Cruel Summer” (Lover) states, “out the window / I’m always waiting for you to be waiting below”— just like Romeo!
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): Now, who among us Gilmore Girls fans can forget when Rory’s Chilton class reenacted Romeo and Juliet in Season 2, Episode 9 (“Run Away, Little Boy”), especially when Paris was forced to stand in for Tristan and be Rory’s Romeo.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Plot: The Scarlet Letter takes place in 17th-century Puritan Boston, where Hester Prynne endures public shaming for bearing an illegitimate child, conceals the identity of her lover, and struggles with the obsession of her estranged husband.
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): In “Love Story” (Fearless), Taylor refers to being “a scarlet letter,” and in “New Romantics” (1989), she mentions “our different scarlet letters.”
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): In Season 5, Episode 11 of Gilmore Girls (“Women of Questionable Morals”), one Stars Hollow Revolutionary War re-enactor wants to call the new female role “the scarlet woman,” but it’s deemed “too Nathaniel Hawthorne.” (Cue: one of Kirk’s most iconic costumes.)
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Plot: Slaughterhouse Five is about Billy Pilgrim, a World War II soldier who experiences his life out of sequence, surviving the bombing of Dresden, living a mundane postwar existence, and even being abducted by aliens from Tralfamadore. The recurring phrase “so it goes” follows every mention of death, reflecting the acceptance of mortality as an inevitable, unchangeable fact of existence.
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): In “Style” (1989) Swift repeats the mantra, “So it goes.”
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): In Gilmore Girls Season 2, Episode 19 (“Teach Me Tonight”), Jess chooses to read this controversial classic instead of his required school reading.
Snow White by the Brothers Grimm
Plot: A jealous queen tries to kill the beautiful Snow White, who finds refuge with seven dwarves until a poisoned apple puts her into a deathlike sleep, that is, until a prince’s love magically revives her.
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): As a writer of love songs, Taylor Swift loves to refer to fairy tales. In “The Best Day” (Fearless), she wonders whether “Snow White’s house is near or far away.”
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): In Season 2, Episode 7 of Gilmore Girls (“Like Mother, Like Daughter”), the Puffs talk about “Snow White and Rose Red” (a different version of the tale). Lorelai also refers to the character Snow White in Season 3, Episode 1 (“Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days”).
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Plot: The Sun Also Rises takes place in the 1920s, as American expatriate Jake Barnes travels through Paris and Spain with a group of friends drinking, fishing, and attending bullfights, while also navigating his unrequited love for the restless Brett Ashley. Their doomed romance closes with Jake’s wistful remark to Brett, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
Taylor Swift’s Reference(s): Swifties will immediately recognize the reference in this “Invisible String” (Folklore) line: “And isn’t it just so pretty to think / All along there was some / Invisible string / Tying you to me?” (Yes, that’s two literary references in one small snippet.)
Gilmore Girls Reference(s): Rory Gilmore holds this book at Yale in Gilmore Girls Season 4, Episode 5 (“The Fundamental Things Apply”).
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Frequently Asked Questions
Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story” alludes to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, reimagining the classic tale with a hopeful, happy ending instead of tragedy, emphasizing youthful romance, overcoming obstacles, and the idealism of true love.
Taylor Swift told The Cut that Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney made her feel like she was in the popular author’s mind. In a Scholastic Web Chat, she said she loved the intricate female character of Hazel in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli was an “amazing book” about remaining true to yourself..
Taylor Swift’s song and album The Tortured Poets Department most notably refer to the poetry of Dylan Thomas and the author of Just Kids, Patti Smith: “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith / This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’rе modern idiots[.]”
